Ableton Live Rescan Guide
Rescanning Soundtoys in Ableton Live 10.1
MacOS
- Open up Ableton Live. In the top bar of your computer, click Live to open the dropdown menu, and select Preferences. You can also use the keyboard shortcut "⌘," to open the preferences window.
- In the Preferences window that appears, select the Plug-Ins tab on the left. If you intend to use VST3 format rather than VST2 or AU, skip to step 5. Otherwise, move to the next step.
- If you've recently installed Ableton Live, it's likely that the default settings only have VST3 enabled. If you'd like to use VST2 or AU formats instead, you'll need to enable VST2 and/or AU plug-ins in order to use those formats in Ableton Live. To do so, just switch the Use Audio Units and/or the Use VST2 Plug-In System Folder settings from off to on.
- After enabling those settings, check to see if Soundtoys appears in Ableton's browser. If your plug-ins still aren't showing up, navigate back to the Plug-Ins tab in Preferences.
- In the Plug-Ins tab, you'll notice a button that says Rescan, but just clicking on that will not rescan Blocklisted plug-ins. To reset the blocklist, hold down the Option/Alt key on your keyboard, then click Rescan while continuing to hold down Option/Alt
- Ableton will begin to reset and rescan all of your plug-ins. If you have many plug-ins installed, this may take some time, but it shouldn't last longer than a few minutes.
- You're done! Ableton will now display your plug-ins in the browser.
Windows
- Open up Ableton Live, and navigate to Live's Preferences.
- In the Preferences window that appears, select the Plug-Ins tab on the left. If you want to use the VST3 format, skip to step 5. Otherwise, if you want to use VST2, move on to the next step.
- If you aren't intending to use VST3, you'll need to enable VST2. Turn Use VST2 Plug-In Custom Folder from off to on. Then, under Use VST2 Plug-In Custom Folder, click Browse, and select the folder where Soundtoys is installed on your computer. By default, you'll want to select the following location:
C:\ Program Files \ VSTPlugins - After enabling those settings, check to see if Soundtoys appears in Ableton's browser. If your plug-ins still aren't showing up, navigate back to the Plug-Ins tab in Preferences.
- In the Plug-Ins tab, you'll notice a button that says Rescan. Just clicking that will not rescan Blocklisted plug-ins.To reset the blocklist, hold down the Option/Alt key on your keyboard, then click Rescan while continuing to hold down Option/Alt.
- Ableton will begin to reset and rescan all of your plug-ins. If you have many plug-ins installed, this may take some time, but it shouldn't last longer than a few minutes.
- You're done! Ableton will now display your plug-ins in the browser.
Further Documentation
If you continue having any trouble, or you'd just like some more information, you can check out Ableton's official documentation on their website below:
https://help.ableton.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000349184-VST-AU-plug-in-doesn-t-appear-in-Live